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Just a day after Gordon Brown suggested the Government might pay for fibre broadband, the Conservative leader claimed his party would make high-speed broadband a priority.

"Fibre optic broadband is changing the way people work and do business, and it has the potential to completely transform our economy," Cameron claimed during a speech on green technology.

"It could open up new markets for our creative industries,

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promote innovation, create new, family-friendly jobs as people can work from home - and help reduce carbon emissions."

"But in Britain we have some of the slowest broadband speeds in the developed world and when it comes to investing in next-generation broadband networks, like fibre optics to the home, we're doing very badly compared to countries like Germany.

"We need to move much faster towards a Britain where fibre right into people's homes is the norm for everyone and a Conservative Government will do everything it can to make it happen within a decade."

The Tory leader stops short of committing to public investment, but companies such as BT have so far baulked at the prospect of anything more ambitious than the slower fibre-to-the-cabinet for anything but new builds.

A study conducted by the Broadband Stakeholder Group claimed it would cost £28.8bn to install a fibre-to-the-home network in the UK. BT has so far pledged to spend only £1.5bn, with others yet to commit.